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About The Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898 | View Entire Issue (March 25, 1897)
h If t k bf u - jy REPUBLICAN GLOOM At the very outset of the McKinley administration the Republicans who understand the signs of the times are despondent for they see quite clearly that hundreds of thousands of those who voted their party ticket four short months ago are already convinced that they were deceived and that never be fore has the tide of popular opinion turned so quickly against the victors in a political contest as it has since last New Years day There are dozens of Republican Senators and Representa tives in Washington to day who feel certain that if the election of last No vember were to be held over again now the result would be different The only consolation that those on the winning side can liud is that the people cannot turn them out by to morrow Not within the memory of the pres ent generation has a party assumed power in this country under such dis couraging circumstances as the Re publican party is doing now and this in spite of what was claimed at the be gftniing of winter as the most magnifl ceffl victory ever achieved in a free nation There is none of the enthu siasm among the masses that was both predicted and expected and there is scarcely any of that hopeful feeling that the promises of the campaign will be realized and that the man who is now President is really the advance agent of prosperity On the contrary the suspicion is already widespread and is growing in strength every day that he is merely the weak represen tative of a gang of corporation sharp ers Those Democrats who were led away from their old party affiliations know now since McKinley spoke his piece from the gaily draped stand at the - v Capitol that their one idea of sound money has no place of honor reserved for it in the Presidents mind He has proven that their hobby never received serious consideration and that while he may feel sorry for them for being duped so easily by his partners he is not going to pay further attention to them In fact like the ordinary vend er of a gold brick he wants to create the impression that he never had any dealings with them McKinleys Financial Utterances McKinleys inaugural utterances on pretty much everything excepting the need of re enacting his tariff for mon opolists only are oracularly indefi nite and in many cases even confusing and contradictory thereby confirming the opinion of those who regard him as a man lacking that breadth of mind ami wide information -which should rJr iftlCterize the occupant of the r iaennai cnair w It is impossible for instance to get any clear idea of his meaning when he says in regard to the money of the country that it is all good now but that it should be put on an enduring basis not subject to easy attack nor its stability to doubt or dispute How can it be all good as he says it is if it is not on an enduring basis and is subject to easy attack Does he know what he means Then he says that the several forms of our paper money offer a constant embarrassment to the Government and a safe balance in the treasury In this last part of the sentence he probauly means that it is a danger to a safe balance in the treasury but why should it be so if it is all good He talks of getting rid of the gold re serve in the treasury and yet he de clares that until the advent of interna tional bimetallism the value of the silver coined and of that which may herafter be coined must be constantly 4 par with gold by every resource at our command and that the credit of the Government the integrity of its currency and the inviolability of its obligations must be preserved Here is a declaration that he is in favor of redeeming the Governments obligations of all sorts in gold of keep ing on a par with gold and at the same time in favor of doing away with the gold reserve Even the former spook advisers of Lyman J Gnge the nation al banker whom McKinley has put in charge of the Treasury Department could not put forth a worse hodge podge than this Whether McKinley is for the bank ers plan of converting the non-interest-bearing greenbacks into interest-bearing Government bonds and turning the entire business of issuing paper money over to the national banks does not ap pear and it is extremely doubtful whether he has any opinion on the sub ject He seems indeed to be a tariff monomaniac New York News Bryans View His the Presidents promise to en deavor constantly to secure interna tional bimetallism is a rebuke to those who think that the gold standard should be maintained because of its merits The system which is so bad as to justify an early and earnest at tempt to get rid of it cannot be defend ed But his declaration that bad as it is it must be endured until help comes from abroad will be discourag ing to those who have ceased to ex pect that international co operation can be secured through persuasion William J Bryan in New York Jour nal Privilege Inimical to Prosperity What the country needs and must have is general prosperity and not a specific thrift for the few to the of The many All men and all corporations who Invest their money in legitimate enterprises for industrial purposes are entitled to fair and rea sonable profit on their investments but no man or set of men should be per mitted to use the legislative and execu tive departments of the Government for their specific benefit Dubuque Times The Fifty Fifth Congress The present United States Senat consists of 90 members and of these 4S are classed as Republicans on all questions but that of the free and un limited coinage of silver 37 as Demo crats and 7 as Populists There is con sequently a clear majority of Republi cans on all ordinary political issues and that party cannot shirk any re sponsibility for the management of the countrys affairs for the next two years at least as they have a clear majority in the House of Representatives of at least fifty over the combined opposi tion of Democrats Populists and Fu sionists In the Senate the straight out Re publicans number 42 while there are six classed as Silver Republicans The Democrats who stand squarely on the uaiional platform of the party aC ptod at Chicago last year muster 29 in the same body the other 6 being classed as in favor of gold and against the free coinage of silver at the declared ratio of 1G to 1 The 7 Populist Senators are of course silverites so that on the sil ver issue the Senate stands For free coinage Democrats 29 Populists 7 Republicans 6 total 42 Against free coinage Republicans 42 Gold Demo crats 6 total 48 The Silver Republicans and Goia Den ocrats in the Senate just balance each other and the dominant party can therefore always muster a major ity whether the question to be voted on is a purely party one or a financial one The House of Representatives which is classified as consisting of 204 Re publicans 122 Democrats and 30 Pop ulists Fusionists and Silver party men with a vacancy from one of the Missouri districts Even if all the Populists Fusionists and Silverites were to combine with the Democrats and vote against the Republicans the latter would still be in a large major ity The Republicans must while the Fifty-fifth Congress lasts be held respon sible for all the legislation enacted They have no excuse for shirking any of it McKinley and the Civil Service The great questions agitating tne mind of the average Republican politi cian at the present time is whether McKinley will enforce the civil service law or not If he does the pickings will be unpleasantly restricted An appreciation of this fact was recently manifested in Congress when a general assault on the civil service policy was made Mr McKinley is on record as an adherent of the civil service theory Indianapolis Sentinel Too Much Like a Coronation To sensible Americans the gorgeous military and civic pageant attending the inauguration of President McKin ley arouses feelings of regret and de preciation rather than admiration and enthusiasm It indicates an unhealthy drift from the democratic simplicity which was the characteristic feature of our republican institutions and the out ward expression of a fundamental prin ciple of free government St Louis Republic Dont Forsret This In the midst of all this triumph or one party and this elevation of its chosen leader it is curious to remem ber how narrow was McKinleys ma jority over Bryan A change in the votes of twenty thousand citizens would have put the Democratic candi date where the Republican is to day and changed the whole course of the history of this continent No man should forget that New York News Exchanjje Comment Somehow or other Marcus A Hanna has a grip on the neck of the new ad ministration that means submission or protruding tongues aaid purple counte nances Yincennes Ind Sun Under the new tariff foreigners wi get American articles cheaper while American consumers will have to pay higher prices The American consum er will have no friends in the new ad ministration St Louis Post Dispatch There are still a good many Repub licans wno like Grosvenor cannot un derstand why Democrats should be al lowed to bold office under a Republican administration and they promise to make life pretty uncomfortable to Ma jor McKinley when the flowers of spring begin to bloom Philadelphia Bulletin The suggestion of a mugwump organ that Vice President Hobart should re form the United States Senate is im practicable Mr Hobart will be too busy taking care of his coal trust If ii has any desire to reform things he van begin at home where his efforts will be less dangerous and more effect ive Kansas City Times In the recent investigations of the coal trust it was admitted that the price per ton had been advanced 1 but with out any increase of pay to the miners The increase in price was accomplish ed by four successive advances of 25 cents each in order to obtain a fair remuneration in which nobody shared but the trust St Louis Globe-Demo crat I EDUCATIONALCOLUMN NOTES ABOUT SCHOOLS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT President Gilman of John Hopkins University on Duties of the Schools Hints on Teaching Geography Cheap School Lunches Duties of the Schools In a recent number of the Independ ent President Gilman of Johns Ilap kins University has a paper on the public schools Among other signs of the times President Gilman notes a tendency to select fewer teachers for the common schools from young col lege graduates He does not lament this fact but urges the filling of school boards with these graduates and their association with the parents and older people so that their desire for too radi cal reforms may be balanced School boards must be cleared of influence if the future of the children is the end the schools have in view It should be an impossible thing for a trustee to be put in or ousted from a position by po litical or ecclesiastical influence The kindergarten has Dr Gilmans endorsement though perhaps there is too much paraphernalia in every day use The aim of the kindergarten should be the formation of habits of truth attention neatness courtesy and reverence And this should be brought about by pleasant processes Dr Gilman urges preparation for practical life for public school chil dren who will not take higher courses The eye and hand training should be thorough and while drawing is of great value more than drawing is needed The observation of nature should be cultivated and practical em ployment provided From the needle to the pencil from the knife to the box of tools is an easy graduation everywhere possible and every young person should be carried through at least three stages of handi craft Look do think and re member are four lessons that ought to be enjoined upon every scholar ev ery day through the period of adoles cence As regards religious instruction President Gilman suggested that the term Godless schools is made possi ble by religious people who are afraid of the introduction of religious instruc tion which does not quite meet their own views The essential points in re ligion should be impressed upon every child A book of selections from the Scriptures might be made which could be indorsed alike by Protestant and Roman Catholic Meantime teachers must teach ethics by precept and ex ample Every child should be trained for the duties of the citizen and his patriotism should be so pure and high as to lift him beyond temptation from bribery School Journal Stick Layinsr Sticks for the laying of figures is one of the richest and most fascinating of Froebels gifts to children and may be made the basis for drawing arith metic and geometry all without the children knowing that they are doing anything but play The sticks may be had in various lengths also in colors I bought a bun dle of 500 thirteen inches long for 50 cents and cut them inyself the desired lengths I have found three inches a convenient length Place a pile upon the table or in a box or pass them to the children tell ing them to take one Let them exam ine it and say what it looks like to them To inspire respect for the mate rial have a little talk about its form and length of what made and the amount of work necessary to prepare from a big tree this little stick Teach position first by imitation then call for the different positions until vertical horizontal and oblique are as familiar as are the terms stand ing lying and leaning Reproduce by drawing on slates and on the board Next take two sticks children de ciding how many and combine the po sitions to various figures which the children will name according to their fancy When by imitation and invention combinations with two are exhaust ed they may be taught the terms right acute and obtuse angles reproducing these and all the forms by drawing As the number of sticks used increas es the variety of objects which the children will form are almost endless After being started on the way they inay be left to themselves if only the teacher shows an interest in their work by an occasional suggestion or wod of encouragement Being perfectly iioise less this material may be used In large classes without annoyance Helen L Lewis in Intelligence School Lunchep In the public schools in Boston 1G00 scholars are daily provided with hot lunches The food is prepared at a central kitchen whence it is distribut ed by expresses to the various schools This system is found to be entirely sat isfactory The variety of food is quite large and the prices very moderate For 5 cents a choice of dishes is offer ed while for 10 the sum of all local epi cureanism may be reached Hints for Teachincr Geography In the study of some of the rivers history will Drove an important help It is not enough to know where a river rises and that it flows in a southerly and then southeasterly direction con tinues in a southwesterly course and so on until it empties into such and such a body of water In studying about the Mississippi River for in stance much would be gained by the scholars learning of the fearful suffer ing caused by the rivers overflowing its banks Explain the cause of the delta and the meaning of the word Let the class learn something of the j battles that have taken place on or near the banks of the river If the im portant cities along the river have al ready been studied review them and fix them in the pupils mind in connec tion with the river We have in Amer ica a great field for this work Very many of our rivers have interesting facts connected with them as the com ing of the early settlers or the found ing of towns or the battles fought in their vicinity or other interesting his torical facts Exchange Lakeside Definition Miss Tremont It is your Chicagoans ignorance of English that is so distress ing to me Now if a man moved from Chicago to Boston would you call him an emigrant or an Immigrant Miss Wabash I would call him an idiot Chicago Dispatch Notes West Gardner Me has a school house 104 years old which is still in use Boston wants a new girls Latin school and asks for an appropriation of 175000 for such a building San Francisco is about to build a new high school which is to be one of the finest school buildings in the Stae Scholarships and bursaries aggre gating over 10000 have just neen awarded for the session at the Glasgow University Many State Teachers Associations have lately passed resolutions to fight vigorously the cigarette habit in the schools and to try to secure effective legislation on this question At Perry O T a school house built of sod collapsed and twenty five school children were entombed for some time Several children will die from injuries and Miss Jennie Jones the teacher is in a critical condition The college Greek letter fraternities in the United States have a member ship of 100000 with about G50 active and 350 inactive chapters They own seventy houses or halls in various col lege towns and cities The annual report of Capt Prat of the Carlisle Indian Training School shows that last year there were 898 pupils at the institution representing sixty one different tribes Over 500 pupils worked upon farms during the summer and earned 19328 A Telephone Paper Pesth in Hungary has a telephone newspaper the only one of the kind in the world It is valuable to persons who are un able or too lazy to use their eyes or who cannot read It has six thousand subscribers who receive the news as they would ordinary telephone mes sages Z v A special wire one hundred and sixty-eight miles long runs along the win dows of the houses of subscribers which are connected with the main line by separate wires and special ap paratus which prevents the blocking of the system by an accident at one of the stations Within the houses long flexible wires make is possible to cany the re ceiver to the bed or any other part of the room The news is not delivered as it hap pens to come in but is carefully edited and arranged according to a printed schedule so that a subscriber at any time knows what part of the paper he is going to hear The staff is organized like that of any other newspaper After the copy has passed througn the hands of the editor who is liable for its communications it is given to the speakers ten men with strong voices and clear enunciation who work in shifts of two at a time and talk the news through a telephone There are twenty eight editions ut tered a day Additions to the first edi tion are announced as news items To fill up the time when no news is coming in the subscribers are enter tained with vocal and instrumental concerts the wire being in communica tion with the churches opera house and music halls This unique news paper has been in existence two years When the Arab Is DiBfjusted Folk that live in ibig towns must of ten be surprised at the horror their country cousins express at the impure air the city dwellers breathe This is of course in both cases due to habit The city man only notices that the air is bad when it is worse than usual the countryman accustomed to the pure healthy air of his ordinary surround ings finds tflie air of the town always more or less bad Thus it is that the Arab the child of the desert wears a worried look when he enters a large town Then he stuffs his nostrils witih cotton or shelters his nose behind a cloth and if obliged to remain over night would rather not sleep indoors But most lowns are hardly so bad in any case as the towns an Arab would be likelv to visit Mouth Marvels The largest mouth proportioned to the size of the animal is that of the frog The mouth of the leech is a pow erful sucker which will sustain many times its weight The tongue of the toad and frog is prehensile By means of it these animals seize and hold their prey The mouth of the lobster is small and he must tear his food to pieces with his claws before he can devour it The mouth of the octopus is in the cen ter of his body and is provided with a beak closely resembling that of a par rot The teeth of fish like teeth of most animals are not fastened to the bone but are held in sockets Water Lilies The water lily is largely used in some parts of India as food The fruit of some species that grow plentifully In the lakes of Cashmere is rich in starch and lias much the flavor of a chestnut MaMM -1 y f H rfwgyt MILriTMVU I m wj T- WEBfinfi 0M L 1 Oxycen in Surjrery Remarkable results are reported to have been obtained in England by treating wounds with oxygen gas Two kinds of micro organisms are found in wounds one kind being beneficent and the other injurious in its effects Oxy gen causes an increase of the former and a decrease of the latter so that according to a writer in the British Medical Journal wounds treated with oxygen heal more rapidly and with less pain than by any other form of treat ment The Earliest Men Dr Ranke of the German Anthrop ological Society recently undertook to describe the physical characteristics of the earliest men as ascertained from the examination of prehistoric graves They were of a yellowish color he said and had coarse hair Their heads were peculiarly shaped the part of the skull which contains the brain being large relatively to the face while the face was small They had other pecu liarities among which was the rudi mentary or undeveloped condition of the third molar or back grinder tooth The Doctor believes that the first men originated in Asia Strawberries as Food In an address on Horticulture and Health before the American Associa tion for the Advancement of Science Prof W R Lazenby discussed the nu tritive value of various fruits and showed that an average man who should undertake to live on strawber ries alone would have to consume eighty eight pounds of them in a day in order to obtain a sufficient quantity of one of the most important elements of food protein But while he was get ting the proper amount of protein from the strawberries they would give him seven times too much of another neces sary compound namely carbohydrates Forty four pounds of tomatoes a day would supply nearly the right quantity and proportion of protein carbohy drates and fat the three most essential constituents of food The chief value of fruit consists in its acids which are important to health FtranireTbinjrs on Mars The planet Mars has recently Decem ber 11 been again in apposition to the sun and consequently favorably situ ated for telescopic observation In fact astronomers have been studying it for some months as it approached appo sition and have once more discerned those curious lines on its surface called canals Theyhave also seen again the round or oval spots that appear at points where many canals meet and to which Mr Lowell has given the name of oases One of the latest and most interesting observations relates to an oasis called Trivium Charontis On November 10 this spot at which nine canals meet was seen at Monsieur Flammarions observatory near Paris to be double or cut in two Five days earlier at the same observatory the spot had appeared dark broad and single The Lost Arts If Wendell Phillips were living to day he would find many fresh illustrations of ancient ingenuity for his celebrated lecture on the Lost Arts Mrs Le Plogeon lately showed in Appletons Popular Science Monthly that the old Peruvians must have understood the laws of atmosphereic pressure in order to construct the very curious jars and vases that they have left One of these pieces of pottery was ornamented with the figures of two monkeys and when water was poured into or out of the vessel sounds like the screeching of monkeys were heard Another similar vessel had the figure of a bird which uttered appropriate notes another was ornamented with a cat which mewed and another with snakes which hissed A most ingenious water jar bore the form of an aged woman upon whose cheeks tears were seen to trickle while sobs were heard when water was pour ed from the jar Worn by the Sea Astonishing effects are sometimes produced by storm billows tearing away beaches and bluffs on the sea coast But upon the whole the steady wearing effect of the ordinary sea waves striking or sweeping along a shore line exposed to in driving winds is even greater although being distrib uted over a comparatively long interval of time it attracts less attention Some statistics recently published show that on the eastern coast of England be tween Flamborough HeaJ and Spurn Head along a distance of hirty or forty miles the beach lias been retreat ing before the onslaught of the ocean for the last thirty seven years at the average rate of nearly six feet a year The same publication shows that man sometimes unintentionally assists the sea in destroying the bulwarks of the land This has occurred at the great chalk cliffs near Dover which have suf fered from the withdrawal of a part of the drifting sand accumulating at their feet and shielding them from the direct assault of the waves Long piers con structed at Dover and Folkestone have diverted the sand and it has been found necessary to construct heavy sea walls to protect the cliffs Freaks of Two Cats In a Philadelphia store there is a cat known as Jim The other day a young woman entered the store for the pur pose of paying a bill Sh was given seat on a large settee while the office boy obtained the receipt Now the back of this settee rests against a rail ing which incloses the oflice This rail ing is very much like a back yard fence and for that reason Is a favorite place for Jim He was in this place when the lady took the seat and he cast admir ing glances at her She was neatly at tired in black and had c large stuffed bird in her hat Everything went well until Jim spied this bird and with a jump he was on her hat much to the alarm and fright of the lady who In stantly sprang to her feet screaming loudly Jim was quickly removed but could not be driven away while the lady remained in the store The clerks are going to slve Jim a stuffed bird for a Christmas present James Bell also a resident of the Quaker City owns a pretty maltese cat whose only fault is kleptomania Madge is the cats name While Mr Bell was eating his supper a few even ings ago he was startled by a funny noise on the stairs Running in the direction of the racket he beheld the thieving cat coming down the stairs with his gold chain in her mouth while tlie watch was bumping each step evi dently much to the delight of the cat Quickly seizing his timepiece Mr Bell made a lunge for the cat but Madge escaped Lately the family had been at a loss to know what Madge had done with her kittens Their whereabouts were discovered by Mr Bell who found the tiny creatures aozWy nestled in his new silk hat A New Way to Clean Carpets There are some machines so simple and so useful that seeing them for the first time an observer wonders why he did not invent them himself Such is the pneumatic carpet sweeper which the Pullman company has recently adopted In this case curiously enough no one knows who invented the article which a New York Journal reporter found in active operation in the Chi cago yards Trainmen were cleaning Pullman coaches which had just returned from California Several hundred yards away from them was the pover house containing the engine that compresses air for broom sen ice Through under ground pipes the compressed air is car ried to the tracks Here a rubber hose is attached to tne connection At the end of the hose is a hollow iron pipe about as large as a broom handle The pipe terminates in a brass fixture a foot In width and hav ing an opening clear across not more than one-thirty-second of an inch wide Through this aperture comes the com pressed air at the rate of about seventy five cubic feet a minute The carpets from the cars are thrown face up on the platform at the side of the track and the pneumatic instru ment is pushed back and forth over the nap with the brass end immediately upon the carpet or just above it The air rushing against the carpet with tre mendous velocity blows the dust and dirt out in a cloud like -She smoke from a locomotive The rapidity with which the work vs done is astonishing Enough carpet to cover an ordinary room is cleaned in less than five minutes and so thorough i ly that no more dust could be beaten out with a stick For cleaning the upholstery in the cars a smaller brass nozzle only two or three inches in width is used but the operation is otherwise the same The Death of Willie Lincoln In the St Nicholas Mrs Julia Taft Bayne gives an interesting glimpse of Willie and Tad Lincoln who werei playmates of her brother Budd Mrs Bayne gives the following account of the death of Willie Lincoln On Feb l Budd had a severe cold and was kept in for a few days and Tad reported that Willie had a cold too When Budd returned from a visit he saidi Willie is dreadfully sick he talks about me and the pony all the time My mother went to inquire and Mrs Lincoln told her they feared typhoid fever Sometimes the President would come in stand awhile at the foot of the bed and go out without speaking Once he laid his arms on Budds neck as he sat at the bedside and leaning over smoothed Willies hair Although on Feb 20 at noon my mother brought news from the White House that Willie was better saying that he had held Budds hand and knew him Willie died at 5 oclock of that day Tad was overcome with grief and was ill for some time A Tough Mushroom While traveling in Switzerland the elder Dumas one day arrived in a lone ly village with only one inn at which the famous novelist was compelled to put up for the night When the landlord who only spoke German came to inquire what he would take for supper Dumas tried but in vain to make him understand that he wanted some mushrooms andr was on the point of giving up with a bad grace all hope of enjoying his dish when he hit upon the idea of taking a piece of charcoal and trac ing on the wall what purported to be the correct outline of a mushroom The landlord went out and Dumas was congratulating himself on the suc cess of his happy expedient when a few moments afterward he heard the Swiss coming up the stairs The mush rooms could hardly have been prepared in so short a time but this thought did1 not occur to our great novelist The footsteps came nearer there was a knock and in walked the landlord with an umbrella Boston Traveler A man cannot depend upon a good time unless he enjoys hard work A woman knows as little about a man as she knows about a horse
